Tim Parchikov

Born in 1983 in Moscow and graduated from Gerasimov All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography (2006) and the Higher Directing Classes (2009). He has taken part in exhibition projects in Moscow, Krasnoyarsk and Venice and has held a series of solo shows in Moscow, Madrid and Reggio nell’Emilia.

In every era a new political or financial elite feels the need to identify itself with classical culture. In this way it demonstrates its legitimacy and emphasizes the justness of its continuing in the role of the previous epoch’s establishment.

After conquering ancient Greece, the Romans began to mass reproduce Greek sculptures. Greek culture responded coolly to the copies of its images. For them it was, as we put it now, tasteless kitsch. Nonetheless, Roman copies became the very definition of high classical culture, and the mass character of their production has not diminished their cultural value. For instance, in Rome in the 1930s a whole factory of copies of Venuses and Apollos was discovered. The sculptures differed only in terms of their state of preservation and all of them went straight to the best Italian museums. Roman copies served as examples for Renaissance sculptors, and their sculptures, in turn, were copied during the following epochs. As a result, the Louvre contains three copies of the Farnese Hercules — from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.

Statues made of marble or plaster are sold by the side of European, American and now Chinese and Russian roads, and continue this tradition. The rapid rise of a new Russian elite with enormous amounts of money and power necessitates another return of the “Romans,” this time in the Moscow region. If the social mechanism of how we relate to classical art remains like it was, then these Moscow copies will soon find a place in museums.